Stores Packed With Last-Minute Shoppers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -If you're heading out to the stores this weekend - be ready for long lines and busy stores. Those of us who haven't finished that holiday shopping are running out of time with Christmas just three days away.
Forget the perfect gift - just finding parking can be a challenge.
Procrastinators who feel the pressure of the looming holiday fill the stores on what's called Super Saturday. Shelly Landherr is one of them.
"I always do. I picked up a few things last week, but otherwise we get everything done today," Landherr said.
The shopping surge even rivals Black Friday for smaller businesses. Bibelot manager Laura Harden says shoppers are hunting for those special gifts.
"Black Friday gets the big stores, the big box stores. Then it's time to…look for some things that are a little more unique," Harden said.
Alysssa Tucker of Creative Kidstuff is busy wrapping presents. For her, the success of Super Saturday can be measured through tape and ribbon.
"I've been doing this for, like, seven years. This is what I was born to do I think," Tucker said.
And there are many gifts to be wrapped.
"Now that there's two of us doing it we'll do, I don't know, hundreds for sure," she said.
But it's not just the retail stores getting that boost in business. Christmas brings one of the busiest days of the year for delis and butcher shops. Preparation for family meals can only be planned so far in advance.
It's a sudden surge in customers that makes almost every retailer merry.
Some retail experts expect spending over the weekend to surpass the day after Thanksgiving, as stores extend their hours and offer deep discounts. And even the procrastinators have learned that timing is everything.
Macy's and Toys "R" Us are open around the clock until Sunday night.
It's estimated about 40 percent of us still have some last minute shopping to finish.
